Status: Past (Mission ended on November 23, 2009 due to an age-related mechanical failure.)

Overview

The SeaWinds instrument on the QuikSCAT satellite was a specialized microwave radar that measured near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over Earth's oceans.

The SeaWinds on QuikSCAT mission was a "quick recovery" mission to fill the gap created by the loss of data from the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) in 1997.

NASA's Quik Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) was lofted into space at 7:15 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Saturday (6/19/99) atop a U.S. Air Force Titan II launch vehicle from Space Launch Complex 4 West at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. The satellite was launched in a south-southwesterly direction, soaring over the Pacific Ocean at sunset as it ascended into space to achieve an initial elliptical orbit with a maximum altitude of about 800 kilometers (500 miles) above Earth's surface. Please check out the Publications Section for frequent status reports and news.

SeaWinds uses a rotating dish antenna with two spot beams that sweep in a circular pattern. The antenna radiates microwave pulses at a frequency of 13.4 gigahertz across broad regions on Earth's surface. The instrument will collect data over ocean, land, and ice in a continuous, 1,800-kilometer-wide band, making approximately 400,000 measurements and covering 90% of Earth's surface in one day.